TONY FISCHER: This young, firsttime candidate for Cincinnati City Council spent the summer defying the mayor and stumping for a pledge not to layoff police officers as part of planned budget cuts at City Hall. A council majority backed the mayor and won cuts from the police union without the pledge.

There’s nothing worse than being condescending toward someone and having it get flipped around on you. Today the people who will have to deal with the confusing wording on the anti-streetcar ballot said to its supporters, “Yeah, your anti ‘choo choo train’ bill could ruin a real choo choo train, you asses.”

The fall might be the only time of year when the weather starts getting cooler, but people in Cincinnati spend the entire year being totally cool. Here’s a list of 50 reasons* why the Queen City is cooler than ever this fall.
*In no particular order. Be cool, man!

JEAN SCHMIDT: Poor Jean, she just can’t seem to keep herself off our list. Just a week after her embarrassing testimony in an Ohio Elections Commission complaint she filed against an opponent, the sour-looking congresswoman drew nationwide scorn for an incident caught on video by Think Progress.

Moving to New York City means missing great work here

Usually when September rolls around, I spend my time prepping an opening at Carl Solway Gallery and anticipating all the new fall exhibitions in town. This year, I’m also preparing for my move back to Brooklyn. While everyone knows New York is a cool town full of art, I’m not ready to admit that it’s any cooler than my Cincinnati.

MAYOR MARK MALLORY: Despite fear-mongering by his opponents, Mallory hung tough in negotiations with the police union and won a major victory. The mayor asked the union for concessions to help avoid a $28 million deficit or face 138 layoffs in the Police Department. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) initially refused, hoping a public relations blitz would change his mind.

Urban farming offers productive uses for vacant city lots

President Eisenhower said that farming looks easy “when your plow is a pencil and you’re 1,000 miles from the cornfield.” Many would-be gardeners enjoy plowing through seed catalogs, but others in Greater Cincinnati have moved from the “easy” part to tilling, planting and tending to new urban farms in lots and backyards across the city.

It’s certainly true that good people can come to different conclusions and disagree on an issue. Sometimes, however, good people are led astray by those with ulterior motives. For more than a year, an unusual coalition of arch-conservatives, civil rights groups, Libertarians, Green Party members and others have joined together to mount several petition drives that have made the ballot and let voters decide on issues that otherwise would have been made by elected officials.

The experiment is over. I’m not a suburban guy. It doesn’t totally surprise me. I grew up in the suburbs, but my heart is in the concrete and noise and combustible nature of an inner city — namely Cincinnati.

In search of a model for ending homelessness and promoting inclusion

For some homeless people, “three hots, a cot and some assistance” won’t get them off the streets and into permanent housing, according to Pat Clifford, executive director of the Drop Inn Center. Cincinnatians understand that, and he believes that’s what really inspired the Homeless to Homes report produced by the Cincinnati/Hamilton County Continuum of Care for the Homeless.